


The Battle of the Tree Topper

by ciaconnaa



Series: 12 Days of Irondad & Spideyson Christmas [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Gen, it's all a good time folks, tony learns the Meaning Of Christmas...sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 07:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16868608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciaconnaa/pseuds/ciaconnaa
Summary: Tony can tell something is off. It takes him a moment of him spinning around on his heels and looking around like an idiot but he finally catches the unfamiliar shine out of the corner of his eye, right at the top of his tree.“Um, what is that?”“I don’t know what you’re-oh." Rhodey says. "Super Mario Star. Cute.”or;Peter keeps swapping out Tony's tree toppers. Tony's only a little mad about it.





	The Battle of the Tree Topper

Every year, Tony has Pepper hire one of the best decorators to deck out Stark Industries HQ, including the tree he has Pepper personally pick out and delivered. Basically...Pepper does everything. She always has. But she puts her foot down after he returns home with the seventeen foot tree Peter bullied him into flying here from some cutesy farm upstate.

“I can only handle one enormous building every holiday season, Tony,” she had said, smile all smug. “You handle this one.”

So he does. He hires someone. He leaves one morning and when he returns that evening, the whole thing is set up, looking just like something out of a department store. It’s classic. It’s timeless. It’s...

“...not you.”

Tony blinks, once, twice. He sticks a pinky in his ear and swabs for any dirt because there’s no way he heard that correctly. “Come again?”

Peter is still pouting. “It’s not you,” he repeats, crossing his arms and looking up at the vast tree before them.

“No,” Tony says slowly. “ _I’m_ me. That’s a tree. Did you hit your head on a patrol?”

Peter relaxes then, arms falling limp to his side. “You’re missing the point.”

“Enlighten me.”

He teeters back and forth on his heels, hands clasped in front of him. “Hmm. Dunno. What’s that saying? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”

Tony narrows his eyes, expression hardening. “You little shit.”

The kid laughs then, all his previous apprehensions about the tree seemingly gone. Tony watches as Peter looks back up at the tree with a _much_ better attitude and he begins to wonder if there was point to begin with. “It looks nice, Mr. Stark,” and Tony can tell that he really means it. “How’d you end up getting it in the house?”

He looks at the panoramic window by the living room, welded back together when he had to pop it off just to get the damn thing inside. It looks awful. Pepper isn’t happy. “I’m Iron Man, I can do anything,” he says in means of explanation.

“Right, sure...But y’know, you didn’t have to spend all this money to have someone else do it. I would have helped you decorate it.”

A sprinkle of guilt twists in the pit of his stomach. “Is that what this is all about? You wanted to decorate the tree?”

Peter wrinkles his nose, tilting his head to the side. His arms move about in a roundabout gesture as he tries to find the words. “No, not exactly. It’s just....” He never finishes the sentence.

“...It’s just not me?”

Peter nods.

“Jesus,” Tony mumbles, rubbing a hand over his face. “Kids these days are ridiculous. What does that even _mean?_ ”

“I don’t know,” Peter agrees.

But he does know. And Tony’s gonna get it out of the kid, eventually.

 

* * *

 

Two days later, when he and Rhodey comes up from his lab late in the evening, Tony can tell something is _off._ It takes him a moment of him spinning around on his heels and looking around like an _idiot_ but he finally catches the unfamiliar shine out of the corner of his eye, right at the top of his tree.

“Um, what is _that?”_ Tony asks as Rhodey, who’s already got his phone pressed against his cheek, calling for dinner.

“What are you going on about, there’s nothing - hi, yeah, I’d like to place an order for delivery.”

But there is something to go on about. Someone has messed with his tree. Someone has taken down his one of a kind, custom crystal star tree topper, and replaced it with a _toy:_ plastic, bright yellow with two little black eyes, and _terrible._

“Rhodey,” Tony reaches over and grabs his sleeve. “Rhodey, where did you put my tree topper?”

His friend keeps trying to shrugs him off as he finishes their order. It’s only when Tony tries sticking a finger up his nose does Rhodey truly scowl and begrudgingly look up at the tree. “I don’t know what you’re-oh,” he says, ending the call. “Super Mario Star. Cute.”

Tony doesn’t think it’s very _cute._ “Where’d you put the other one?”

“Didn’t touch it. Must of been your kid.”

_Of course. Peter._

So Tony leaves it be. For now.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, before he’s even finished his morning coffee, Tony notices there’s been another switch to the tree topper. He recognizes this one easily. Honestly if he didn’t know what it was, he should be….fined or something, considering how much Peter loves those movies.

It’s a star, all right.

The fucking _Death Star._

It’s grey and bulky and only moderately less cheap than the Mario star. It lights up in two places: red around the band and green on the giant circle on the side.

Tony has to give the kid credit where credit’s due. Peter has full access to his house, so it’s not like he’s really been breaking in, but how he managed to get FRIDAY not to alert him of his arrival, he doesn’t really know. And if he’s done this twice in two days, Tony fears it’s going to be an ongoing thing. Whatever _this_ scheme is, wherever he’s hiding his tree topper, he’s obviously committed to the craft.

“Let’s see what you got kid,” he mumbles to himself.

 

* * *

 

The next time the topper is swapped, Tony has _no_ idea what it means.

Rhodey has his arms crossed as he looks up, squinting. It's still a star. But. "It's just....it's just paper. Printer paper. What's it say?"

Tony had to use FRIDAY just to _read it._ "You tried. It literally just says _you tried._ "

"Tried what?"

"How the fuck should I know?"

A pause. "Is it a meme? That's what the kids call it right? It's got to be a meme."

"I don't...what? No. How is this a _meme?"_

Rhodey snorts. "How the fuck should I know?"

Tony sighs.

 

* * *

 

Tony wakes up to his living room in _shambles._ And by shambles he means his tree is covered in little sticky webs and topped with a webby...snowflake looking….star shaped _thing_ that definitely took Peter more than a few tries to make, considering the carnaged attempts that litter his floor.

All this for a spider-web star.

“I think it’s nice,” Pepper snickers beside him. He feels the soft fabric of her dressing gown brush up against him when she brings a hand to her mouth to try and stifle her laughter. “He’s just trying to make it more... _homey.”_

“Cobwebs are the opposite of homey, Pepper. They’re... _Halloween.”_

“Why can’t it be both?” She shrugs. “Haven’t you seen the Nightmare Before Christmas?”

“Yeah, I’m looking at it right now.”

But Pepper is forever on Peter’s side, and she won’t as much make fun of him, even when the kid is webbing their tree and putting toys on top.  “It’s not so bad! It kind of looks like snow, or maybe ice - hey where are you going?”

He’s already got one hand on the door knob. “I’ve got a spider to squish.”

 

* * *

 

Tony’s not mad. Okay, he’s a little unhappy about the sticky spidey-webs on his tree, but he’s really not that mad. He’s...confused. Confused as to why Peter hesitated to compliment his tree the first time around, confused as to why he keeps breaking in and swapping out the tree toppers, and confused as to why Peter won’t simply answer the text messages that he sent in the last hour that read: _I’m coming over to your house. Right now. This is not a drill._

It doesn’t take enhanced ears to hear the laughter from May’s apartment before he even makes it all the way down the hall. It’s mixed with Christmas music blasting from a speaker, the old kind, the kind his mom used to play on the piano, and he feels...speechless. He wouldn’t chalk it up to Holiday Spirit because quite frankly, Tony’s not sure he quite remembers what that feels like. It’s been too long since his family’s half-hearted attempts at a warm and fuzzy Christmas.

He knocks on the door and there’s a chorus of “Tooooooony!” so he lets himself in and promptly steps into what looks like Santa’s Workshop if someone...had nuked Santa’s Workshop.

Peter, May, Ned and a new girl he hasn’t met- Michelle, if he has to guess, are all crowded around the kitchen peninsula, hunched over sugar cookies, ribbons, glitter, sprinkles, you name it: if a craft store carries it, it’s on the counter.

“Hey, Mr. Stark!” He’s closest to the wall by the outlet, holding a cheap, store bought wood burner. “We’re making ornaments! We’ve got...cookies, little tiny sleds, pinecones, and bottle cap snowmen going, if you’re feeling particularly artistic.”

“What are _you_ working on?” he asks, poking Peter on the side of his head.

“He’s trying to make little Santa hat outlines,” Michelle supplies. Her eyes are entirely on her bottle cap snowman. “It’s not going too well. He burned his hand three times.”

“It already healed,” Peter promises when Tony picks up his hands and checks each and every finger, just to to be sure. The kid then waves the unbelievably hot wood burner around, ignoring May’s comments about how he needs to _not do that._ “Want to give it a try?”

Honestly, he _doesn’t._ The whole DIY craze isn’t really his scene. But it’s Peter. And he’s _here._ So why not.

“Gimme,” Tony finally says, scooting Peter out of the way so he can use the barstool. He plucks a clean, wooden circle from the bag and gets to work.

Immediately, Peter realizes he’s strayed from the syllabus. “That’s not a Santa hat…”

“No, it’s better. Hush up, I’m working.”

It doesn’t take him long to finish and Peter gushes in awe before he has a chance to reveal his design to them all.

“No way! Iron Man mask!” Peter says, grabbing the ornament from his hands. He’s quick to tie it with a red ribbon and a small, silver bell.

“That’s so cool!” Ned gushes. “I didn’t know Tony Stark was an artist.”

Tony gives a one shouldered shrug. “Nimble mechanic hands and an oversized ego makes things pretty easy.” He nods to the tree the Parkers have set up. “Go ahead and hang it up.”

“I get to keep it?”

“Yeah. I made it for you.”

Peter runs over to the tree while Ned tugs on his sleeve, begging for one as well. Again, it’s not a hard feat, not when his whole life is pretty much Iron Man, and he makes Ned’s whole day when he tosses the wooden chip like a frisbee his way, knocking him in the face and probably giving his nose a splinter. The kid’s friend couldn’t care less.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark!”

He simply nods, glancing at May and Michelle as they work on painting their snowman noses before he whirls around in the barstool to find Peter is still by the tree, ornament in hand, seemingly debating on where to put it.

“I think the top is good,” Tony says. “Right by that tree topper that I can’t believe isn’t mine.” He pauses. “Where’d you put it?”

He stands on his tiptoes to reach a good spot, hanging it on the tree with one swoop. “It’s in my backpack. I never bothered to take it out.”

“You’ve been carrying 10,000 dollars worth of crystal around in your backpack?”

Peter’s knees _buckle._ He almost falls into the tree. “Oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD be right back Mr. Stark I am _so sorry_ I didn’t know!” and in a blink of an eye he’s gone, rummaging through his room.

May looks up, frowning. “Is it really 10,000 dollars?”

“Yeah, just knock off like...two zeros,” he winks. May rolls her eyes but Michelle actually smiles, and he’s glad someone approves of his torturous teasing.

While Peter’s in his room, Tony walks over to admire the Parker’s...tree. Up close, it is is every bit as messy and chaotic as it looks from far away. There aren’t two identical decorations on the tree. None. It’s wrapped unevenly in multi-colored lights, donned with homemade ornaments, candy canes, and popcorn strings galore, but somehow, none of the nerd things Peter so loved to put on _Tony’s_ tree, like light sabers or Mario characters.

Still. The tree is kinda cute.

“Here,” Peter says as he runs back, thrusting the tree topper into Tony’s hands like it’s on fire. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t think about how expensive it was, I never would have taken it-”

“Kid, it’s fine. I don’t care.” To make his point, he tosses it behind him to land on the Parker’s couch. Peter _squeaks._ “No big deal.”

But speaking of tree toppers, it’s _Peter’s_ that really catches Tony’s attention. It’s a star, just like all the other ones that Tony’s been blessed with, but this one is...different. It’s made out of paper, intricate and delicately folded, but that’s all it simply is: paper.

Strangely enough, he likes it.

“Where’d you get that one?” Tony asks, pointing to the paper star.

Peter’s eyes light up with pride as he uses his super strength to give him an extra boost in his jump, hopping up to swipe it off the tree. “Ben made this, like, five years ago. Isn’t it so cool? He used pages out of my favorite book from when I was a kid.”

“You let him tear pages from your favorite book?”

“I had worn it out, the whole thing had fallen apart. Not worth rebinding, so I just bought another copy. But since it was around Christmas, Ben suggested we turn the pages that had fallen out into something cool, so that I didn’t have to throw it away.” Peter twirls the star in his hand, laughing, before he places it in Tony’s hands in a way someone might pass off a butterfly.

He turns it over in his hands, studying it, reading the parts of it that he can actually read. And oddly enough, he knows this book. He has it in French. His mom gave it to him when he was first starting to learn.

_“Le Petit Prince,”_ Tony huffs out a small laugh.

“Yeah,” Peter says scratching the back of his head. “I’ve always really liked that book. Don’t know why.”

“It’s about a little boy who ends up traveling the universe,” Tony shakes his head, snorting out another laugh. “I know exactly why.” He pauses, staring at the star in his hand. “My mother always told me the prince dies, at the end. Even though there’s no body.”

He can _hear_ the hitch in Peter’s breath as he stands beside him, but his face is neutral, eyes sparkling with the reflections of the colorful lights. “Nah,” Peter finally says, carefully taking the star out of Tony’s hands and putting it back on the tree. “The prince definitely went home.”

Peter leans into him. Tony’s arm finds its way around his shoulder, pulling him closer.

“That’s what I thought, too.”

 

* * *

 

“So, what do you think?”

Peter looks up at Tony’s tree, still covered in fancy ribbons and matching ornaments and forever looking _Perfect,_ but there’s a new addition at the to and it’s not Peter’s doing this time. And Peter just stares. He stares for a long time.

At the top sits his old arc reactor. The first arc reactor. The thing that started it all.

Peter has a lot of different smiles, Tony’s noticed. He has ones that nearly break his face in half, he has ones that slant when he’s about to tell a joke and he has the sad ones. But it’s this one, the soft warm kind that he gives when words aren’t _quite_ enough, that’s Tony’s favorite.

“It’s very-”

“-you,” Peter finishes softly. “It’s you.”

“Yeah, kid,” he pulls him into another hug. “It sure is.”

**Author's Note:**

> a PERSONAL FAVE what can I say? I really like this one :3
> 
> this one sorta piggybacks off the first one with the mention of the Christmas Tree Giganticus or whatever but it still stands on it's own. And the other stories will too. 
> 
> ALSO i thought the little prince made a nice parallel to infinity war....a boy traveling space...disappears, no body....ok, so I'm reaching. sue me.
> 
> stay tuned for the next few installments which have christmas music, frozen lake peril and the ghost of christmas past oh my


End file.
